In your heart you have what ideally should be a sacred space where no force in this world, no person in this world, no demon, no authority figure, can ever enter. For that matter, no loved one can enter, not even a child, for it is your sacred space. What is it that the forces of anti-love seek to do? They seek to invade your sacred space or to pull you out of it so that you are no longer centered, so that you no longer realize you have a sacred space, so that you forget that you are a sacred being.
There are people in America who will say the Buddha has no place on this soil because we are a Christian nation. What makes you think that the Buddha is not a Christian? What makes you think that Christ did not study and practice Buddhism? The Buddhic consciousness is the Christ consciousness, at a higher level than the Christ consciousness that goes out into the hustle and bustle of the world. It is not higher in the sense of more valuable, but it is a higher level of detachment from the world. The Christ is the one who hears the cries of the world and goes out to minister to the people, giving them whatever they need in order to come up higher. The Buddha stays apart, creates a sacred space, a sanctuary, and therefore lets the people come to him or her. Both are equally needed, both are equally valuable, although certainly many more people in the world need the Christ to minister to them, for they are not yet ready for the Buddha.
Is America a Christian nation?
Higher awareness does challenge the mindset that America is a Christian nation, as it challenges the false preachers of the Christian churches in America and the false teachers of Buddhism that have come to this nation. The Christ consciousness is a universal state of consciousness, but it is more focused on discerning between light and darkness, reality and unreality. Although the Christ consciousness at the Christic level is not dualistic, it is still focused on the difference between light and darkness, reality and unreality. The Buddhic consciousness has transcended that level and manifested a higher detachment and therefore more of a vision of universality. The Buddhic level of consciousness – the Buddhic level of the Christ consciousness – is therefore more focused on the universal or formless behind outer forms. The Christ will say: “Get thee behind me, Satan.” The Buddha will not say this, for to the Buddha there is no Satan and there is no behind.
When you look at this nation of the United States of America, what do you see? You see that people from all over the world – from all different cultures, races, nationalities, religions, skin colors – have been brought here and put into this “melting pot.” There are many tensions between different groups of people in America, not only between blacks and whites but many other groups. This growing tension is a sign that America has not stepped up, that not enough people have stepped up to the Buddhic consciousness. How shall America fulfill its destiny without a critical mass of people holding the balance by embracing and manifesting the Buddhic consciousness? You see, the Christ consciousness is surely needed in America, but the Christ consciousness is not enough for America to fulfill her destiny.
The Christ consciousness shines a light into the darkness, which reinforces and brings out the contrast. The Buddhic consciousness allows you to see beyond the contrast and see that the contrast is not real for there is a Buddhic essence behind both light and darkness. People cannot overcome their differences through the Christic level of consciousness, but only through the Buddhic level of consciousness. Surely, not all people in America can attain the Buddhic level of consciousness, for they have barely begun to grasp the Christ consciousness. Yet a critical mass of people can embrace the Buddhic consciousness and hold the balance for America.
The only way that the cosmic experiment of America can work, the only way that the melting pot can avoid blowing itself up, is that people learn to see beyond the outer differences and embrace the universal aspect within. This is, of course, what the forces of anti-love will do anything in their power to avoid by defining these conflicts and blowing them up out of proportion, stirring up the energies in people’s emotional bodies, feeding them illusion after illusion until they are so focused on the outer differences that they have no awareness of the Buddhic nature hiding behind all form.
Problems with Buddhism in America
Who then shall hold this Buddhic balance for America? Certainly, those who have embraced a universal spiritual teaching can do so. Those who have embraced Buddhism in some form in America could also be able to do so. Unfortunately, many of them are not manifesting that potential because the Buddhic movements, the Buddhic teachers that have come to America, have been far too focused on the outer form of Buddhism, rather than the universal elements of it.
What sense does it make to build a Buddhist monastery in the mountains of America that looks exactly like a Buddhist monastery in the mountains of India or Tibet? What sense does it make to wear the same robes, to have the same rituals? What sense does it make? What sense does it make for the people in the East to still be, quote-unquote, “worshiping” the Buddha the way they have done for centuries when the modern world has shifted? That in itself makes no sense, and it makes even less sense to take that form of Buddhism and try to transplant it to America where the consciousness is so different.
Non-attachment does not mean that you think everything is equally good or that everything is good. It does not mean that the Buddha does not care, does not discern, does not discriminate, between that which helps people grow and that which stops their growth. Higher awareness seeks to awaken people to the need to step up to a higher form of what you might call Buddhism, but which is not Buddhism in a traditional sense. There is a need to recognize that you must embrace the universal aspects of the Buddha’s teachings as they were given 2,500 years ago. There is also a need to acknowledge that you must embrace the universal teachings that the Buddha is giving today.
Finding the inner Buddha
Why do we see celebrities running after this or that Buddhic teacher when they have grown up in America, know the American culture and therefore should be willing to embrace the appearance of the Buddha rather than some dead outer ritual? You may think it is great pageantry to take on certain Buddhist customs and rituals, but it is not true Buddhism. You are not worshiping the Buddha by doing so. You are not embracing the Buddha within by being so focused on these completely out-of-place outer rituals, dogmas, doctrines, customs, clothing, building styles, what have you.
Do you think that if the Buddha had manifested in the West, he would have taken on these outer forms? Nay. Therefore, realize that for the Buddha, time is not. The Buddha is manifesting himself in the West for those who are willing to embrace him, but when you are focused on all of these outer forms developed in a different time in a different culture, you are not embracing the Buddha. He does not need you to worship him. He needs you to embrace him. You need to embrace the living Presence in order to discover and accept the Buddha nature within yourself.
The living Buddha is not in a golden statue. Nor is he in a mantra in some strange language that you barely understand. Surely, you can use certain mantras, but be not trapped in thinking that giving the mantra itself is enough for it is not. In order to embrace the Buddha, you need to surrender. Surrender is the only way to overcome an attachment, and it is your attachments to the world that prevent you from embracing the Buddha.
The forces of anti-buddha
When you start looking with the discernment of higher awareness, you will see just how many organizations actually reinforce the sense of separateness between people. Truly, the women’s liberation movement claims to have liberated women, but to a large degree it has only cemented the difference, the distinction between men and women. It has done little to overcome the conflict that goes all the way back to the deliberate intent to murder the Divine feminine and any representative of the Divine feminine in embodiment, such as you saw during the witch hunts and other events of systematically persecuting or killing women.
You may call for the rights of a certain group of people to be acknowledged, and that may be valid at a certain level, but there comes a point where it is no longer valid for now you are only reinforcing differences. You are locking people into a matrix that creates an inherent conflict between them, and this is not beneficial to the growth of society.
Political duality
It will never be possible to have two political parties that are not locked in a dualistic struggle. They have to set themselves apart from each other, and this almost inevitably leads to them being polarized towards the extremes of any issue. When you then add the black-and-white thinking that is a manifestation of anti-christ, you see that it will always be viewed that, when two viewpoints are in conflict and are opposites, one must be right, the other must be wrong. In the greater vision of the Buddha none of the two are right and none of the two are wrong. They are simply out of touch with reality. They are away from the Middle Way. Higher awareness brings the awakening of those who have in their Life plans the vow to embody in America and discover, walk, and demonstrate the Middle Way, not in a Buddhist context, not by following an Eastern Buddhic religion, but by being the open door for the ideas that are beyond the dualistic extremes.
This is the calling of many people who have embodied in America, not a large number compared to the size of the population, but a sufficient number if they all awaken and embrace what is possible for them. Wake up! Discover and embrace your dharma. Form the Sangha, and then embrace the Buddha within yourselves and each other.
Do not judge yourselves or each other
Do not fall into the trap of judging each other when one person dares to simply be open and relaxed and express his or her individuality and personality. Higher awareness is not looking to create a community of mindless minions where everybody is so focused on outer rules that none dare to express individuality. You have each been given a sacred individuality by your higher selves. It is your right to express it. You have developed, during your sojourn on this earth, an outer individuality. It is also your right to express that individuality in the form it has right now. Surely, you can us teachings and tools and your own willingness to transcend the outer individuality gradually, but you cannot make maximum progress by falling into the trap of the forces of anti-love, of judging your outer individuality according to some worldly standard.
Higher awareness sees your outer individuality, sees that it is not ultimately real, that it is not something you will keep for the rest of your life or take with you to the higher realm. As long as it does not directly block your growth, it is not concerned about it. Do not fall into the trap seen in so many spiritual communities, where you use the outer teaching to create some kind of standard and then seek to judge yourselves and each other based on that standard. Allow yourselves to be who you are, and instead of being irritated over each other’s outer personality, see beyond it and see that it does not matter.
There are some who never dared to express their individuality for they were so focused on following the rules. They would sit there quietly, and whenever someone dared to express individuality, they would then judge it. They would put it down, or they would speak about it behind people’s backs. Daring to express anything is not the fastest way to growth, judging others can only be done when you judge yourself, and this will hinder your growth.
The control game of judging
Someone expressing their personality, however imperfectly, is still flowing. Expressing your personality, and then perhaps seeing that there could be a higher expression, leads to growth. Not daring to express anything, but instead judging yourself and others, will not lead to growth. This does not help your growth, for it is truly a control game.
What is the essence of a control game? The essence of it is a deficit. You have allowed the manipulators to put upon you one of the many illusions they have invented. You have allowed yourself to believe that you have a deficit in your being, that you are not worthy, that you are not good enough, that you are not complete, that you do not have what it takes, that you have no right to be here or express yourself.
Another way to have a sense of deficit is that you have something in your outer personality that you judge. Perhaps you have been in a negative pattern at some point in your life, and now you believe that, because you have done this thing, you can never be free of it, you can never again be worthy. These are, so to speak, the Alpha and the Omega ways to create the sense of a deficit inside of you.
What the manipulators have done is create a world where, when you have this sense of deficit, you cannot avoid having it stirred up. There are so many activities that human beings engage in where their inadequacy will be reinforced, even by loved ones in families. This happens all the time. It also happens at the level of society, or even at the level of religion, where the sense that you are a sinner already stirs up this sense of inadequacy.
Well, how can you live with that deficit inside of you? The answer is that you cannot so what must you do? You must find a way to compensate for the deficit, and that is the birth of all control games. They take many different outer forms, but they are all aimed at one thing: compensating for the inner deficit. That is why those of you who are willing to overcome these control games need to look at this sense of inadequacy.
You need to make peace with the fact that you have a higher individuality. You need to strive to experience your higher self and to embrace that individuality, accepting that you have a right to express it on earth. Before you can really do this, you need to get rid of this sense that your outer personality is inadequate. This is not saying that you need to get rid of the outer personality. You need to get rid of the sense that this outer personality can prevent you from expressing your higher self because you are somehow not worthy or spiritual enough, according to some worldly standard. If you wait until you are perfect in terms of the outer personality before you dare to express the light of your higher self, then you will never be an open door for that self. You will have aspects of the outer personality with you until the moment you ascend. When Christ was hanging up on the cross, he had to give up the last ghost. It is part of what keeps you tied to earth.
Accept yourself as you are right now
Allow yourselves to recognize and accept that, no matter who you are right now, no matter how your personality is right now, you still have a right to be here. You have a right to be a more aware person. You have a right to express yourself freely and without these encumbrances. Why did Christ say: “Unless you become as a little child?” It is because the child, no matter how imperfect or how distinct its personality might be, is free and unencumbered in expressing it. That is what cannot help but stir the hearts of other people who see that even though the child may be imperfect or have a distinct personality, it is cute, it is loving, it is joyful. Allow yourselves the same freedom. Give that freedom to yourself, and give it to each other.
It is a joy when you overcome this focus on the outer personality, when you are no longer judging yourself and judging others. Be willing to recognize how you have all been brought up to take on this artificial tendency to always evaluate everything you do and everything other people do: Is it good enough? Is it right? Is it acceptable? Is it okay? Why do you evaluate the expressions of other people, seeking to find fault and put them down? It is because you have already evaluated yourself and found fault with yourself. Once you have judged yourself, the only way to get out of this sense of feeling bad about yourself is by making other people as bad or worse. When you have put yourself down to a certain degree, you have to put other people down to a greater degree, and then you somehow feel that there is some kind of balance. If you are not worse than the others, then you are maybe, perhaps somehow okay.
Are you not tired of playing this silly game? Then look at it, use the tools, the teachings, use your ability to tune in to your heart, to your higher self, to your spiritual teachers, and get that perspective on it. See how you are judging yourself, and when you discover this subtle belief of the manipulators that you have taken on and see the unreality of it, you will feel like the weight of the world has been taken off your shoulders. Literally, the weight of the world’s condemnation and judgment has been taken off. Be free! You will feel so much lighter, so much freer when you stop judging everything and everyone, including yourself.